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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. spring — of water
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. rush — hurry
  5. ground — a position
  6. wax — to grow
  7. file — a line of people
  8. last — final
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. capital — money
  11. last — to go on
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. file — a tool
  14. court — of a king
  15. spring — the season
  16. capital — a city
  17. ground — the earth
  18. court — for sport
  19. spring — a coil
  20. last — finally
  21. court — of law
  22. file — a document
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. rush — a thrill

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com